Reiter's syndrome--disease of young men-- analysis of 312 patients.

INTRODUCTION Reiter's syndrome is reactive arthritis occurring after acute urogenital (urethritis, cervicitis) or enterocolitis infections. The associated ophthalmological and/or mucocutaneous changes are full clinical manifestations of this disease. This paper was aimed at analyzing clinical and radiological characteristics and findings of possible etiological factors and protocol for Reiter's syndrome therapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS Of 312 patients included in the study, 279 were men and 33 were women, the ratio between them being 8.5:1. The disease was diagnosed based on clinical evidence of two basic characteristics of Reiter's syndrome: arthritis preceded by acute urogenital or enteral infection. RESULTS Urogenital and enterocolitic form of disease was found in 242 (77.5%) and 52 (16.5%) patients, respectively; whereas the initial cause was not discovered in 18 patients (6%). Three or two main signs of Reiter's syndrome were present in approximately the same number of patients (41.7% and 44.2%), whereas all four signs of disease were present in 14.1% of the patients. Acute or sub-acute form was present in 40.5%, while recurrent and chronic disease was diagnosed in 31% and 28.5% of the patients, respectively. The most frequent clinical manifestation of this disease was on the locomotor system as asymmetrical oligoarthritis localized in lower extremities, present in 69.4% of the patients. Chlamydia trachomatis was found in the synovial fluid in 54% of patients (20/37), ureaplasma or mycoplasma was isolated in the synovial tissue of 73.1% of patients (30/41) and in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells in 93.2% of patients (41/44). Human leukocyte antigen B27 was present in 83.3% of patients. CONCLUSION Reiter's syndrome is a multisystem disease, predominantly occurring in human leukocyte antigen B27 positive young males. The fact that the causative agents are found in the synovial membrane or synovial fluid is indicative of infectious rather than reactive arthritis.